


mornings, afternoons, evenings, nights

by arielmagicesi



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Basically fluff without plot, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Holding Hands, Love, M/M, Opal is a growing satyr girl and their daughter, sickening nauseating over-the-top fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 17:47:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8455948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arielmagicesi/pseuds/arielmagicesi
Summary: The most self-indulgent fluffy thing. I've never heard of plot or substanceRonan, Adam, and Opal move their family up to a new farm in upstate New York and make their lives together when Adam and Ronan are 20. Adam keeps going to school in the city but now that he's much closer, he can visit more often. How do they navigate being adults in the real world, being (essentially) parents at age 20, and following their dreams while still recovering from everything that's happened to them? Not to mention missing the Barns, even if they love their new life.in other words: as much domestic fluff as I can come up withnot very critical of the Barns ending, though obviously it deviates from it. Opal will be slightly more of a "real child" in this than she is in canon, but she still has hooves, bird shrieks, Latin, dream memories, and strange ethereal-ness and maturity for her "age." however she will go to school and talk a bit more than in canon.





	1. beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> questions:  
> -don't you have other fics you're supposed to be writing?  
> if you mean More Than Just Magic, I've abandoned it :( if anyone out there was REALLY invested in it, let me know and I'll maybe post my notes that I had for the rest of it, but it's just not happening... sorry  
> if you mean my big bang piece (if for some reason you care about that) I'm doing that too but I'm also doing this  
> -why'd they leave the Barns?  
> see my fic "simple, quiet, senseless" (shameless self promo, yeah) for my thoughts on that, or read one of 4 gabillion essays on tumblr about this  
> -will this have a plot?  
> if you count like... some emotional sad things that get resolved in gradual ways through Love and Mutual Support and Internal Self-Therapy and Etc then yes, but otherwise no not really
> 
> thank you for reading! the title derives mostly from the idea that their life will be happy all times of the day or something, IDK, i thought it would be easy to abbreviate

“What if I dreamt a portal?”

Adam dipped a French fry in ketchup, said, “Do you think you could?” and then ate it.

“What’s a portal?” Opal asked. She was diligently attempting to cut up a chestnut she’d found outside earlier.

Ronan didn’t answer either of them. He got up to check on the pie in the oven. Adam had thought baking a pie would take too long. He was right; they’d all gotten hungry before Ronan was done making the from-scratch crust he always insisted on making, which was why Adam and Opal had gone down to McDonald’s down the road to pick up fast food as their first dinner in the new house.

“What’s a portal?” Opal asked again, pounding the chestnut into the coffee table with her fist, squashing it.

“Careful, Opal,” Adam said, “you’ll hurt your hand. And a portal is like a door that can take you instantly to someplace far away.”

“Oh,” she said. “So he wants to dream a door that’ll take us right back to the Barns right away.” She rolled her eyes. “That is so typical of Ronan.”

Adam had to stifle a laugh- she’d taken to calling Ronan by his English name when she wanted to mock him, which was often. And she’d learned how to be a sarcastic ten-year-old from all the TV she watched and the kids she’d hung out with occasionally back in Singer’s Falls.

“He is such a baby,” she added, sighing dramatically. “I don’t even miss the Barns a little. Not one bit.” Then her face scrunched up and she threw the mutilated chestnut at the wall. “Even if they didn’t have these yucky acorns.”

Adam ruffled Opal’s hair, and her expression softened a little, but guilt panged in him.

 _They wanted to leave_ , he reminded himself. _They both wanted to move on from the Barns. Ronan wanted to start a place of his own._

But maybe they’d only tricked themselves into thinking that. Maybe Adam had manipulated them into leaving Virginia, coming all the way up here, to this strange cold state of apple orchards and wild chestnuts.

Later, when Opal was sleeping and Adam was curled up in bed with a book, Ronan said, “I’m not really gonna dream a portal, you know.”

“I know,” Adam said, not looking up from his book. “I think that’s a little beyond even your powers.”

“Fuck you. I could dream one if I wanted to. I don’t want to. The Barns aren’t gonna disappear; they’ll still be there whenever we want to go back. And I want to stay here. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I know,” Adam said. “You don’t have to reassure me, I’m fine.”

Ronan edged himself up against Adam under the blanket and wrapped his arm around Adam’s chest, which was his way of saying that he knew that Adam did need reassuring.

Adam set his book on the side table and said, “Are you sure you made this choice because you wanted to?”

“I’m sure,” Ronan said. “This was my idea. Trust me, Adam. I want to be here.”

“But not because of me?” Adam pressed. “Is this good for _you_ to be up here?”

“Jesus fuck,” Ronan said. “Yes. I’m gonna miss you when you go back to school, but I’m happier up here.”

They’d had this conversation a million times.

“But you’re happy at the Barns,” Adam said.

“I told you,” Ronan said, his head resting on Adam’s chest. “It’s different. I want…”

His voice stopped, and Adam said, “Never mind, I shouldn’t have pushed the issue-”

“I just want to move forward,” Ronan said, quietly. “I want to make my own place.”

They’d had this conversation a million times. One of these days, Adam was going to believe it unconditionally- that he wasn’t selfish, that he hadn’t dragged Ronan out of happiness, that he wasn’t a burden.

“Tell me about what you’re going to do here,” Adam said, looking into Ronan’s eyes, which were soft and peaceful. “Once I’m back at school.”

So Ronan told him: all his plans for what he’d do with the old farm they’d bought (with money Ronan had earned from selling farm goods and some that Adam had saved up, and with mortgage still to pay off), how he planned to decorate the house (with an uncomfortable amount of spikes and knives and skulls), the local organizations and farmer’s markets he’d already signed up for.

Adam thought about Ronan three years ago, angry and volatile and refusing to do anything, self-destructive, and looked down at the Ronan curled next to him now, warm and excited about his future.

He raised a hand and brushed it along the side of Ronan’s face. Ronan grabbed his hand and kissed it.

“Want to christen our new home?” Ronan said, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

“No,” Adam said. “I want to sleep. I’m exhausted.”

“Boring,” Ronan said, smiling.

“You’re the boring one,” Adam said. “You’re apparently a member of the local baking circle.”

“Shut the fuck up. My pies are goddamn amazing.”

Adam let out a tired laugh and kissed Ronan’s forehead. “You’re a boring old farmer.”

Ronan glared at him.

“Don’t worry. I still find you exciting, even if you aren’t young and sprightly like you used to be,” Adam said.

“ _Sprightly?_ ” Ronan said, sounding outraged. “First of all, why the fuck are you talking like Gansey, and second of all, I’m still _sprightly_ , I’m fucking 20.”

“Ah, but you’re a seventy-year-old crotchety man at heart.”

“Fuck you. I could still beat anyone’s ass in a race.”

Adam laughed, folding over himself so his and Ronan’s faces were barely an inch apart. “If you can leave your knitting circle long enough.”

“Fuck you! I don’t knit! I’ve never knitted anything in my life, you asshole!”

“Right, Mabel from the baking circle knits you all your sweaters.”

Ronan glared at him and said, “It’s actually Sargent from the weirdo midget circle, if you want to be accurate. You goddamn dickweasel.”

“Oh, that reminds me, she made us a quilt,” Adam said, sitting up a bit. “She’s gonna send it from Brazil. Apparently it’s inspired by-”

“Christ, don’t tell me about Sargent’s arts and crafts shit,” Ronan interrupted. “You were right, we should fucking sleep.”

“Yeah,” Adam said, yawning. “Let’s sleep.”

He reached over and switched off the lamp on the side table and slid down until he was comfortably lying on the new bed.

In the quiet darkness, needing to fall asleep, he felt himself miss the Barns a little, too. They’d been close to Henrietta, and they were tinged with dark old memories, but they’d been safe. A warm old sanctuary, full of magic and light.

And Adam was happy to be here, but new places were always frightening at first. He remembered the first night at St. Agnes- proud to be on his own, but upset at the strangeness and loneliness, the long unfamiliar shadows, the way his mattress was placed.

But he wasn’t alone this time.

Ronan pulled Adam close, burying his face in Adam’s neck, and Adam breathed him in.

“It’s colder up here,” Adam whispered, even though it was still late August. “You’ll have to keep me warm.”

“Gross,” Ronan whispered back.

He ran his hands up to Adam’s hair, stroking it softly, and Adam hummed contentedly, feeling sleepy and happy. He loved the feeling of Ronan’s fingers in his hair, scratching a little at his scalp, pleasing and comforting.

He could feel the wedding band on Ronan’s ring finger if he focused, and he rubbed the ring on his own finger and smiled softly into the darkness.

The wedding had been at the Barns, too, and the memory of it was warm as hot cider in Adam’s chest. Everyone they loved had come, and the air had been lit up with thousands of dream-lights and fireflies, and music and summer warmth and happy tears and friendship and family and love. The memory didn’t make him sad to leave the Barns- it made him happy that he was here now.

Like he could keep the memory, as a tiny bit of light in the ring on his finger, to summon any time he needed it.

He let his head rest against Ronan and fell asleep.

 

Opal was up bouncing off the walls and running around the house, her hooves incredibly loud on the wood floors of the hallway. The house was considerably smaller than the one at the Barns and the sounds echoed everywhere.

“Jesus son of a shit,” Ronan said, rubbing his eyes.

Adam, cranky as usual when he had to wake up earlier than he had to, said from next to him, “We said we’d take her back-to-school shopping.”

“Can it not be at the crack of fucking dawn?”

“To be fair,” Adam said, glancing at his watch on the bedside table, “it’s 8 am, not the crack of dawn.”

His voice betrayed him, though- he was definitely not in the mood to be awake.

“I’m gonna tell her to keep it down a bit,” Ronan said, rolling off the bed. “You go back to sleep.”

“No, I’m fine-”

Ronan leaned over the bed and kissed him, then said, “Sleep. I’m gonna go make some breakfast for Opal.”

Adam smiled at him, his sleepy smile that made Ronan melt a little, and closed his eyes again. They’d gone to bed fairly late and Adam had lifted a lot of boxes yesterday when they’d moved in. He deserved to sleep as much as he wanted. Besides, Ronan was used to getting up first from the two years he’d already spent working as a farmer.

They hadn’t moved in any animals yet- most of the animals were back at the Barns, where Matthew was watching them for now, and the dream animals were going to stay there and be watched over by the new couple Henry had found, who knew enough about the supernatural to not be weirded out and to respect the Lynch family. The few non-dream animals that they’d acquired over the past two years were moving in with them the coming week.

Opal was running up and down one of the hallways and flinging herself at the walls on either end, making terrifically loud crashes and bangs every time.

“Opal!” Ronan said. “Opal, for fuck’s sake!”

She gave him a wicked grin and then skidded down the hallway on her hooves until she crash-landed against the wall and collapsed on the floor.

Ronan let out a long sigh and scooped her up from off the floor. She was getting to be too big to constantly be picked up, but it was still the easiest way to get her to stop running around.

“Opal,” he said, quieter, while she glared at him. “Adam’s sleeping.”

“Oh,” she said. “Sorry.” She didn’t look too sorry.

“Do you want breakfast?” he asked, walking into the kitchen. “Or do you want to do something quiet, maybe?”

She rolled her eyes. Christ, she was so sarcastic lately. Probably the result of being raised by two sarcastic assholes.

“I want to go back-to-school shopping,” she said.

He deposited her on a chair by the kitchen table.

“Later,” he said. “I don’t think the stores are even open this early.”

She folded her arms and sat back in her chair, legs dangling off the edge, face in a perfectly pissed-off expression.

“Want pie for breakfast?” Ronan asked.

Opal’s face lifted a bit. She shrugged, which meant _yes_.

The kitchen was bare and still a bit messy, but Ronan liked it that way- it had that half-done aesthetic that felt very true to him. He pulled plates and forks out of one of the unpacked boxes of dishes and he and Opal sat at the table and had slices of the pie he’d made yesterday. It was probably ridiculous to have brought flour and butter and sugar to the house before even unpacking all the dishes, but he felt like it was necessary to make it a home. Besides, making pie from scratch was calming, and it had been worth it to see the slight raise in Adam’s eyebrows when he’d actually cleaned the counters from all the flour, and the smile Opal was trying to pretend she wasn’t wearing while she muttered, “It’s OK, I guess,” and shoved pie into her face.

She and Ronan finished their breakfast slices of pie incredibly quickly, and then Opal said unceremoniously, “Is school bad?”

“What?” Ronan asked.

“School,” she repeated, slower. “Is. It. Bad.”

“Bad” was not very descriptive, but Ronan knew what she meant. Was it scary? Would people be cruel to her? Would it be like a nightmare?

She’d been homeschooled over the past two years, an odd combination of reading lessons from Adam, math and science lessons from Blue and the Fox Way women, basic history lessons whenever Gansey and Henry visited, and Ronan filling in everything else the rest of the time, with help from the Internet when they needed it. Declan, Gansey, and Henry had pulled together their combined connections to get the forms Opal needed to register at the local elementary school in this charming New York State small town.

And Opal had been excited to start school. Ronan would have been happy to keep homeschooling her forever, but she saw Adam go to school and she loved learning and she wanted more. They’d visited the school a few weeks back and she’d seemed really excited about the school.

So what the fuck was going on?

He looked at her and said, seriously, “Depends.”

She set him with a glare. _What exactly does that mean, Greywaren?_

Ronan sighed.

“You might like it, you might not,” he said. “Still worth it to try. And you’re a fucking nerd, you’ll probably do great.”

“Nerd isn’t good,” she said. “Not at school, I saw it on cartoons.”

“OK, I mean you’re smart, urchin. And like you give a shit if some asshole kids don’t like you. You’ll be fine, and if you’re not, just tell me or Adam.”

She let out a long sigh and placed her head in her arms on the table, her hair falling into the sticky pie crumbs that she’d spilled.

“I guess,” she said finally.

They spent the rest of the morning unpacking more boxes and playing games in the front yard. Opal leaned down against the ground and picked up a seed pod from beneath a tree, examining it.

“Kerah,” she said quietly.

“Yeah?”

“I miss it. The Barns.”

“Don’t tell Adam,” Ronan said quickly, before thinking, and her face scrunched up.

She stood up and bunched her hands into fists and said, loud and high-pitched, “You’re NOT supposed to tell me not to tell Adam things! Otherwise it’s keeping secrets and it’s not nice!”

“That’s not what I meant, fuck, Opal, calm down,” Ronan said. It was more awkward to have Opal yelling up here where the houses were a bit closer, although the farm property was still big enough to not be _too_ close to other people.

Opal folded her arms and glared up at him.

“I _meant_ ,” he said, leaning down and trying to soften his expression a bit, “well, I didn’t mean that. I’m just worried about him, that’s all, but you can tell both of us anything.”

“Well, don’t say bad things then,” she said.

“I won’t.”

“I like it here,” she said. “It’s weird but I like it. But I miss Cowie and Orla and Gwen and the barns and the chickens.”

Ronan wrapped his arms around her and hugged her softly.

“I miss them too,” he said. “But we’re gonna get used to it. I promise.”

 

 


	2. back to school

Adam had been the one to make a list of school supplies that Opal would need. Ronan didn’t remember shit about elementary school and what supplies fifth graders were supposed to have.

He drove them to Staples, Opal bouncing excitedly in the backseat- she got excited about the weirdest shit. And Adam, for some reason, lit up when they entered the store. He gazed around at everything with a look of wonder in his eye.

“What the fuck are you looking at, a treasure cave or a bunch of fucking pencils?” Ronan said, waving his arm in front of Adam.

Adam looked down at him, snapping out of his trance.

“Sorry,” he said. “I just… really like school supplies.”

“You really like school supplies?” Ronan repeated, glancing at him sideways.

“Yeah, and I always used to get shit ones from the dollar store if I got them at all, so I like seeing all the real supplies. Fuck off.”

“Hey, whatever,” Ronan said, suppressing a smile. He liked how much Adam just used curse words now- he’d really been a terrible influence on him. “Come on, let’s get everything on this list. Where’d you even come up with this shit?”

“The school sent out a list,” Adam said, leaning forward on the shopping cart. Opal was running in front of it, jumping over the tiles on the store floor.

“The school sends us mail?”

“They emailed us a list of recommended supplies,” Adam said. “I put in my email when we registered Opal for the school. I forwarded you all the emails. You should really check your email more often.”

“Fuck that.” Ronan picked up one of the red buttons from a shelf and pressed it to see what it would do.

“Stop it,” Adam said, when the button said something. “You know Opal’s gonna copy you when you do dumb shit. Come on, do you want to look at backpacks?”

This last part was directed at Opal, who had climbed around the edge of the shopping cart and was gazing up at Adam.

“Yeah!” she said, jumping off the edge of the cart.

Opal took ages choosing a backpack- there were about four thousand options, either boring as shit or tacky and weird, and she apparently needed to whisper into them and close her eyes as part of the selection process. Adam was endlessly fucking patient with this, and Ronan eventually just sat himself down on the floor and pulled a pen out of his pocket to start drawing on his arm.

When Opal told them she needed to go on a walk around the store with her final backpack choice to see if it would really work, Adam said, “Sure, sounds like a great idea. Let’s go.”

“No, I have to go alone,” she said.

“OK, but be careful,” Adam said.

As soon as Opal was out of earshot, Ronan let out an exasperated sigh and said, “How much patience do you have? Christ.”

Adam sat down next to him on the floor, arms folded over his knees, and leaned against Ronan’s shoulder.

“I told you,” he said, voice a little soft. “I never got to do this when I went to elementary school. I- I want her to get whatever she wants.”

Ronan looked over at Adam, who was wearing a wistful expression, and he was overcome with a need to buy or dream beautiful school supplies, which was not an urge he had ever expected to have.

“You’re right,” he said finally. “Even if it’s annoying. Let’s let her take forever with this.”

It took two hours to get everything- the backpack, the lunchbox, pencil cases, sparkly folders and spiral notebooks and clean pencils. Adam spent an unnecessary amount of time looking at a bunch of moleskine notebooks, which Opal wasn’t going to have because she was in the goddamn fifth grade, but Adam stopped to look at them anyway.

“Looks like some Gansey shit,” Ronan commented, when Adam still hadn’t torn himself away from the row of moleskines.

“Yeah, they’re for annoying hipsters who are writing novels at Starbucks,” Adam said, running his hand lovingly over one.

“Sure,” Ronan said. “Which is why you’ve been staring at them for ten minutes.”

“Shut up.”

Ronan cackled. “You can admit you’re a hipster motherfucker.”

“They just look nice,” Adam said, turning red. “They’re too expensive anyways, whatever.”

“I’m not judging you.”

Later, Adam looked pretty longingly at the 64-pack of crayons, and said, “Man, I was always so jealous of the kids who got these.”

Opal looked up at him curiously and then said, “Adam, I want two crayon boxes. One for me, one for you.”

Adam laughed. “It’s fine, I don’t need crayons-”

She glared at him with a glare that usually indicated an incoming ear-splitting bird noise, and Ronan jumped in, “Opal, if Adam wants crayons, he can buy them for himself.”

“I know,” Opal said. “It’s a present.”

“How is it a present if I’m the one buying it?” Ronan asked.

“It’s a present from both of us,” Opal said matter-of-factly. “I picked it and you bought it. Just like Blue’s birthday present.”

Ronan looked over at Adam, who was smiling a little, but had a strange look in his eye, and Ronan knew that Adam, even if he was never going to use those crayons, actually, in some part of him, wanted the damn 64-pack.

“I did never get you a wedding present,” he said.

Adam looked at him incredulously.

“First of all, yes, you did,” he said. “You got me a shit-ton of flowers. Second of all, it was _your_ wedding too, dumbass, and third of all, are you really gonna get me crayons as a wedding present?”

“It’s a joint present from me and Opal.”

“Crayons.”

“It’s a fucking amazing gift.”

Opal was fixing Adam with a shining look in her eyes, and Adam always gave into her way too easily.

“Fine,” he said, taking the two boxes of crayons and putting them in the cart.

He looked sheepish about the whole thing, so Ronan said quickly, “OK, what else is on the list? Are we even close to done or does she need some other weird shit?”

“Uh, did we get an eraser?” Adam said, glancing over the list and then back into the cart.

“Yeah!” Opal said, not even looking into the cart. “I’m hungry. I want to get pizza.”

“First let’s check that we have everything,” Adam said.

He went through the checklist, Opal picking up each item to verify it, and then they went and paid for everything. Adam still grimaced a little when Ronan pulled out his credit card to pay for all the supplies. They’d made an agreement a while back that Adam would contribute some of his wages and savings, when he could, to pay for a percentage of the stuff they bought together, but it was still a small percentage, and Adam still felt guilty. Ronan was never going to fully understand why Adam felt guilty when Ronan would have climbed into the sky and unhinged the stars for him without a second thought, but then again, he’d had a very different childhood than Adam had. He’d accepted that there were some feelings he wasn’t going to understand.

Afterwards they did go out to get pizza.

“We’re going grocery shopping as soon as we can,” Ronan said warningly as Opal had her third slice of pizza. “Back to fruits and vegetables once we’re fully moved in.”

Opal made a grumble-y noise at him and went back to devouring her pizza.

“You’re so cute,” Adam said to Ronan.

“Are you talking to me or the urchin?”

“You, dumbass. Two years ago you ate like shit. You’re the same age as all the assholes at my school who have Red Bull for breakfast and you’re telling Opal to eat her fruits and vegetables.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not all the assholes at your school.”

“I know,” Adam said, eyes narrowing a little, and he glanced back down at the table. “Which is why I said you’re cute.”

“You’re- you’re the cute one, you shithead.”

“You’re both _gross_ ,” Opal insisted through a mouthful of pizza.

 

When the doorbell rang, Adam jumped up- it was an entirely different sound than the dreamy chime of the Barns- and went to get it. Ronan was outside, taking a look over the fields and equipment, and Opal was in her room reading.

At the door was a bright and chipper old woman, holding a tray covered in tinfoil.

“Hi there!” she said enthusiastically. “I heard we had new neighbors so I thought I’d drop by and say hello!”

“Hello,” Adam said back, tone friendly.

“My name’s Wendy,” she said. “Me and my husband Dave live in the house down the road, close by. Thought I’d bring over some banana bread to welcome you.”

“Oh, uh, thanks,” Adam said, taking the tray from her. “Uh- why don’t you come on in?”

Wendy walked into the house, looking around, as Adam walked into the kitchen to set the tray on the table, and then she asked, “So where are your parents?”

Adam stiffened.

“Why?” he spit out, accent thick and ashamed, and then he realized: he was twenty years old. He looked young. She thought he was a college student at home for break, living with his parents.

He looked back at Wendy, who looked startled, and he turned red.

“I- they- it’s actually just me and uh…” He instinctively took a half-step back, then barreled through the rest, “It’s just me and my husband, actually. Who live here. And uh, our daughter.”

Wendy’s eyebrows raised, and Adam shrank further into himself. He hadn’t been ready to introduce himself that way. He hadn’t even called Ronan his husband to anyone else. It was such a strange concept- he had never expected to get married, let alone so young, but they’d both wanted to, and it made it easier to get legal shit done.

But it was still weird to say it. Especially to a complete stranger.

“Well,” Wendy said finally, laughing awkwardly, “I don’t even know your name. Or your, uh, husband’s. Or daughter’s?”

“Oh,” Adam said, breathing a tentative sigh of relief. “I’m Adam. Um, my husband is Ronan, he’s outside. And Opal’s upstairs, she’s our daughter.”

He could feel the tension in the air.

“How old are you?” Wendy asked. “If you don’t mind me asking. It’s just you rarely see kids getting married so young these days, let alone having kids.”

She let out a laugh that was awkward enough to let Adam know she was neatly skirting around the topic that they were both men, which was nice, actually, because he’d been afraid she would be awful about it. He felt like it was ridiculous to still get worried that someone would be homophobic, but also, he knew it wasn’t that ridiculous.

It was a relief at any rate.

“We’re, uh- it’s a complicated situation,” he said. “Do you want some of the banana bread, by the way? I just finished unpacking all the plates.”

“Well, that’s lovely of you to offer,” she said.

Adam set some of her banana bread on two different plates and sat down next to her, still quite awkwardly, when she said, “Hold on. You said your husband’s name was Ronan. Is that Ronan Lynch, by any chance?”

“Yes,” Adam said warily. He couldn’t possibly have done something to gain a reputation this fast.

“Well, would you believe that?” Wendy said. “He’s signed up for my baking circle, I don’t know if you know that.”

Adam had to stifle a laugh.

“Yeah, I did know,” he said. “Yeah, he likes to bake a lot.”

“Well, isn’t that lovely? I wish my husband would bake, ever. I’m sure Ronan is a nice young man.”

Adam had to stifle another laugh.

“Sure,” he said.

About then, a blonde head peeked out from the edge of the stairwell and hissed, “Adam!”

“One second,” Adam said, and walked out the open door of the kitchen to the hallway by the stairs.

“Who is that?” Opal whispered, holding on to the corner of the wall for dear life. She looked up to Adam with a slight hint of fear in her eyes.

He reached for her hand, which was clinging to the wall where the stairwell met the floor. She took his hand and stumbled out into the hallway- she’d been sure to wear the socks Ronan had dreamt that made it look like she had human feet under them.

“It’s just one of the neighbors,” he said. “She’s very nice. Her name’s Wendy. Do you want to come out and meet her? You don’t have to.”

Opal shrugged her shoulders. “OK, I guess. Did she bring food?”

She peered into the kitchen, clearly able to see the banana bread.

“Yes,” Adam said. “Come on, you can come meet her and have some of the food she brought.”

Wendy cooed over Opal, naturally fond of her, as everyone, in Adam’s opinion, should be, and Opal was shy as usual but scarfed the banana bread down without much shyness. After about fifteen minutes, Wendy left, saying she really ought to get back, and she was looking forward to meeting Ronan.

Ronan came back into the house a little while later, after Opal had gone back upstairs, and he was covered in dust and earth.

“The farm looks like it’s in pretty good condition,” he said, trampling into the kitchen. “And before you say anything, I’ll wash the floor from any dirt I get on it.”

“Wasn’t gonna say anything,” Adam said, smiling. Seeing Ronan covered in dirt was comforting, a reminder of the calm daily routine of the farm.

Ronan took off his work gloves and set them in the cardboard box near the back door where they usually threw boots covered in mud and other things, out of laziness, and chucked his shoes in there, too.

“What’s that?” he asked, gesturing to the banana bread on the table.

“Oh,” Adam said. “Our neighbor came over and brought it. Her name’s Wendy, she seems nice. She recognized your name from her baking group.”

Ronan made a vague grumble-y noise and took a slice of banana bread.

“Hmm,” he said. “This is pretty good.”

“Well, I guess you’ll enjoy being part of the baking circle, then.”

“You can wipe that smug grin off your face, Parrish. You know, if Sargent knew you were mocking me for,” he set into a terrible parody of Blue’s feminist-rant voice, “ _deviating from traditionally masculine roles in the domestic whatever-the-fuck-_ ”

“I’m not mocking you,” Adam said, although he clearly was, and he sat down in the chair next to Ronan.

Ronan leaned back and sighed, looking over at Adam.

“So, what’d you do while I was out? Besides meeting our neighbor,” he asked.

“Just finished unpacking,” Adam said. He was fairly tired from the school shopping and unpacking, and he leaned back, too, swinging his legs up into Ronan’s lap.

Ronan’s eyes lit up a little at the contact, and he said, “Are you too tired to… you know…”

“To have sex?” Adam said, too tired for whatever disgusting innuendo Ronan was going to come up with. “No, but you’re covered in dirt. And Opal’s running around.”

Ronan’s face scrunched up pettily.

“For fuck’s sake, Ronan.”

“You keep rejecting meee,” he whined. “First last night, then now. Ever since we moved here, you’re not in the mood anymore.”

“Ronan. We’ve been here barely over twenty-four hours.”

“If I was a moleskine notebook, you’d want to fuck me,” Ronan muttered.

Adam sat up, launching his legs back onto the floor, and said, “You little shit.”

“It’s true!”

He hit playfully at Ronan’s shoulder, and Ronan got up and started running into the living room.

“Don’t run away, you asshole!” Adam yelled, and tackled him onto the couch. Ronan was cracking up.

“You are such an asshole,” Adam said, breathing hard, after about five minutes of pointless fake-wrestling tired him out. He collapsed on top of Ronan.

“Takes one to know one,” Ronan said.

“When exactly have I been an asshole?”

“You were just making fun of my baking. Five seconds ago.”

Adam rolled his eyes. “That’s fair, I suppose.”

Ronan smiled up at him, still pretty disgusting and breathless, and trailed his hands down to Adam’s hips. Adam leaned in until their foreheads were touching and said, “By the way, we’re not doing anything until you take a goddamn shower,” and then kissed him.

 

The last day of summer before Adam had to get back to school was already beginning to look like fall. Opal went outside in the early morning, a short while after the sun came up, to collect fallen leaves. Adam wasn’t up that early- he was taking advantage of his last day of break to sleep in as much as he wanted.

Ronan, on the other hand, was awake with the sun, going to tend the animals that had been moved over at last, and check on the starting harvest. He’d inherited a crop of squashes from the previous owners, and they seemed to be doing well.

When he saw Opal sneaking down into the slowly wilting cornfield, a salad bowl from the kitchen in her hands that was full of leaves, and Chainsaw hopping behind her, he let out a sigh- partially of exhaustion and partially of admiration.

He knew that she was strong and he knew it didn’t matter what other kids thought of her, but he was worried. She wasn’t normal. Not by a long shot. Not just because of her hooves and her bird calls and her three languages. Not just because she was something out of time, a dream, born in a nightmare world, not truly human. But she was raised in an odd family, and she had strange habits, and he was just so worried that the other kids were going to torment her.

Opal being strong didn’t mean it wouldn’t bother her if- if they treated her- if they bullied her-

He didn’t even want to think about it. It was making him angry and it would be a real dick move if he got angry at a bunch of hypothetical little kids. He was _not_ going to become that entitled rich parent who came in and yelled at other kids for not loving his precious baby, or whatever the fuck.

There wasn’t much way to avoid asshole kids being bullies. He wasn’t going to do what his father did, and make Opal shut up her abnormalities and be ashamed of them so that others would find her normal. Which, frankly, they already did with her hooves, and he knew how much Opal hated wearing shoes all the time.

But he was going to make sure Opal knew there was _nothing_ wrong with her. And anything she could get away with doing without creepy government agents taking her away for it, she could do. It was just killing Ronan inside to think of the shitty kids at school that were going to give her hell for some of it.

Opal ran back out of the cornfield, Chainsaw flying after her and cawing. Her bowl had a few more leaves in it. She stared directly at Ronan as she passed him and said nothing. He nodded at her as she passed by, figuring she was going to eat leaves for breakfast no matter what he said about it. At any rate, leaves probably had a decent amount of protein, which he’d read was important for kids her age.

Not that her digestive system really worked that way. But, better safe than sorry.

He went back to his work, and about ten minutes later the back door of the house burst open again and Opal came running out, sans salad bowl of leaves this time.

“Kerah!” she cried.

“What is it?” Ronan asked.

She ran up to him and tugged at his leg.

“When is Adam gonna wake up?” she said.

Ronan sighed.

“I told you,” he said, “he’s sleeping in. It’s his last day of break, let him rest.”

“But I want him to play with me!”

“Later. Here, I’ll play with you.”

“No. Adam.”

Ronan could understand Opal’s preference for Adam, but it was still frustrating.

“And what’s wrong with me?” he asked, jokingly.

She stared up at him and folded her arms. Clearly she didn’t have an answer.

“You’re dumb,” she said, finally.

“That’s not a nice word.”

“You never say nice words!”

“Fair,” he said, leaning on his shovel. “Here’s an idea, why don’t you help me finish chores for the morning? By the time we’re done, I bet Adam will be up.”

“Fuck that!” she said.

He let out another exasperated sigh.

“I knooow,” Opal said, before he could say anything. “Don’t say bad words at school.”

Ronan did not want to imagine what would happen if Opal dropped an f-bomb in the middle of class. He was already dreading parent-teacher conferences enough.

“I know you know,” he said. “OK, if you don’t want to help, then I don’t know what to tell you. Find something to do.”

Opal shrugged, as if to say _if that’s the only option, I guess I must._ Then she ran off again.

 

When Adam woke up, it was a little past ten AM, and the sunlight was soft and the bed was warm. On the bedside table was his watch, the book he’d been reading, and a photo of him, Ronan, Opal, and Blue, Henry, and Gansey at the wedding, framed in an old frame the Fox Way women had made.

He rolled around a bit under the covers- he was going to miss a comfortable bed when he was back on campus. He would’ve decided to live here and take the two-hour-long commute to school every day, just for the bed, if he hadn’t been receiving a full scholarship for his housing as well.

OK. Not just for the bed. 




He took off the T-shirt he’d worn to bed with his boxers and started to get up when the door burst open and Ronan walked in, locking the door behind him.

“What is it?” Adam asked.

“Sorry,” Ronan said, glancing back at the doorknob. “I just don’t want Opal to bother us.”

“Ronan, I just woke up.”

“I know,” he said. “I heard you getting up, that’s why I came in. I just… want to be alone for a bit. You know. Before you leave again.”

The hurt in his voice hurt at Adam’s chest, and Adam had to take a breath to remind himself. _Leaving isn’t selfish._

“OK,” he said, because he wanted to be alone with Ronan for a bit, too.

Ronan had changed from his work clothes into a clean cotton T-shirt and cargo shorts. He crawled into the bed next to Adam, under the thin blanket, and wrapped his arms around him.

“So clingy,” Adam murmured, while Ronan twined his limbs around as much of Adam as he could reach.

“You’re one to talk,” Ronan said, head buried in Adam’s hair.

“True,” Adam said.

Ronan kissed his hair softly, breathing it in, and said quietly, “Your hair smells nice.”

Adam laughed a little, more out of calm happiness than anything, and let his muscles relax.

“Didn’t you dream some pillowcase or something that smelled like me?” he asked. “Last semester?”

“Ugh,” Ronan said, sounding embarrassed, and let his head fall into the crook of Adam’s shoulder. “Yeah, I did. I still have it somewhere.”

“You should dream me something that smells like you,” Adam said, running his hand over the curve of Ronan’s back. “Lots of things.”

“Miss me that much, huh?”

“Yeah.”

Ronan looked up at him, eyelashes especially long at this angle- Adam’s favorite angle, Ronan wrapped around him, close and warm and solid, his chin resting against Adam’s chest, his beautiful eyes gazing up into Adam’s.

“Yeah,” Ronan said. “Me, too.”

He surged up and caught Adam’s lips in his own, and Adam took Ronan’s face in both his hands and kissed him like he was trying to take some of the kiss with him for safekeeping later.

They lay there for a little while, kissing and just holding each other, without much need for words. Bittersweetness washed over Adam- he remembered the ache of missing Ronan in school last year.

But they were closer this year. It would be easier, a lot easier. He could visit every weekend if he wanted to, and to be honest he did want to. He was set up for an internship in the city for the fall semester, but it was only during the week.

It was still so, so difficult to leave.

He let himself soak Ronan in.

Ronan trailed kisses to his right ear and breathed, “I love you.”

“I love you,” Adam said.

“I love you,” Ronan said again.

“I love you,” Adam said again.

They did that, sometimes- repeat it over and over- when they needed to. Because they both needed to hear it. And they both liked to say it.

“I love you,” Ronan said, pulling back a little to look into Adam’s eyes.

“I love you,” Adam said, running a hand over the back of Ronan’s head. Ronan closed his eyes and sighed.

Then he smiled and said, “Remember that we’re married?”

Adam’s face split into a grin, and he said, “Yeah, of course I remember, dipshit.”

“I know, I just…” Ronan hid his face in Adam’s chest.

“I always remember,” Adam said, quieter. “It’s… nice. I know it isn’t really a magic connection or anything but I feel a little like it means we’re always connected. Even if we’re not together, physically.”

“Gross,” Ronan muttered, his face still hiding, though it didn’t cover how his ears got red.

Adam rubbed his ring again- it was calming- and he said, “Hey, wait a minute. You dreamt the rings, right?”

“Yeah,” Ronan said. He had- he said it was stupid to buy them, and he’d dreamt them with a perfect pattern of leaves carved seamlessly into them. “Why?”

“You didn’t make them have some weird property, did you? Like they calm you down when you touch them or something?”

“What?” Ronan said, looking up. “No, they’re just regular rings.”

“Oh,” Adam said. Now it was his turn to turn red.

Ronan laughed, not mockingly, but just warm and open.

“I like the rings too,” he said. “I like being reminded that I’m married to you.”

Adam was smiling and red and so warm.

Then there was a loud banging on the door.

Both of them startled. Opal shrieked from the hallway.

“Guess it’s time to get up,” Ronan said, and took both of Adam’s hands in his own to pull him up.

Once Adam got changed into regular clothes and brushed his teeth, he finally went downstairs to have some breakfast with Opal. She sat down next to him, holding, somewhat ominously, a salad bowl full of leaves from outside, and some long green bits of corn stalks.

When Adam was done eating his toast (spread with some of the jam they’d brought over from Ronan’s jam-making phase last summer), Opal leaned over and said, shyly, “Adam?”

“Yeah?” he said, looking up.

She tilted her head onto her shoulder and said, “Could we do arts and crafts?”

“Like with Blue?” Adam asked. Whenever Blue had babysat Opal, she hadn’t known much about what to do with her except to pull out craft supplies and do arts and crafts.

Opal gave him a strange look, then said, “I want to do leaf rubbings. Blue taught me how to do that. I’ll show you.”

She ran up to her room and came down with several pieces of paper and the box of crayons they’d bought for Adam when they’d gone back-to-school shopping. He’d nearly forgotten about it, leaving it with the other school supplies in Opal’s room. Her first day of school was in a little less than a week, and so they kept all the school things in her room to get ready.

“Like this,” Opal said, sitting back at the table, and she placed one of the leaves onto the wooden surface of the table, its veiny underside facing up. Then she placed a piece of paper on top and opened the box of crayons tentatively. She looked at Adam, as if to ask if it was OK for her to take one of his crayons.

“Go ahead,” he said.

She pulled out a red crayon and then demonstrated how to make the leaf rubbing, running the crayon lightly over the paper where it pressed over the leaf, creating an imprint of the leaf pattern.

“Now you do it,” she said.

“Oh,” he said. “I- uh- I don’t know-”

He wasn’t sure what made him hesitate. He’d done arts and crafts with Opal before, but the crayon box- it reminded him of why he’d wanted it so much.

He remembered how other kids had had decent school supplies. Not good ones, for the most part, but decent ones at least. He’d mostly had to use the communal supplies the school provided, but his parents hadn’t put buying school supplies at the top of their priority list, or on it at all, to be honest. And one day, when he’d asked his fourth-grade teacher once again to borrow a pencil, she’d loudly reprimanded him in front of the whole class about being unprepared for school, and how once he got to fifth grade, this kind of irresponsibility wouldn’t be tolerated anymore, and how he could do without a pencil if he didn’t know how to be prepared.

It was the kind of memory most kids just forgot about within the week. He still remembered it.

He remembered longing so badly for good school supplies. When he would go grocery shopping with his mother, he’d see the good crayons on the shelf, when they had back-to-school sales, and his heart would ache, and he knew it wasn’t going to happen.

And it wasn’t just that he could afford it now. It was the way Opal had so effortlessly decided that she wanted to get him what he wanted. Her shining eyes looking up at him, and how Ronan had insisted, and how he felt so loved. Even with such a stupid thing.

How he felt so understood. Like nothing he asked for would be laughed at, yelled at, turned away.

“Adam?” Opal said gently.

He reached over and pulled out a crayon. A soft mauve color.

Opal put a hand on his arm. Then she rested her head on his arm too.

“Thanks,” Adam said.

Opal nodded.

He reached for a leaf and placed it underneath one of the pieces of paper, then did the leaf rubbing.

Opal joined him, and soon Adam felt lighter, removed of the shitty memories from childhood. It was like he was getting something back that he’d lost, that he’d never had. Some quiet happiness in just seeing the pattern of the leaf materialize in waxy bright colors.

It was nice.

Later, they showed Ronan the leaf rubbings, and he acted as if they weren’t that impressive, but later Adam found them hung up on the wall in the living room, haphazardly stuck with tape. And they ate dinner and laughed and played games with Opal and Adam finished the last of his packing for school and he remembered that he was part of a family.

That if he needed anything, he could ask them, and if they needed anything, they would ask him.

It was something he hadn’t even realized he wanted, for so long. And to have it was to have, finally, a home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I worked way too fast so that I could get this up "tonight" (aka 2 am which is really 3 am without Daylight Savings) so the ending might be rushed? I hope you like it anyway. If I haven't made it clear yet, I know next to nothing about agriculture, or parenting, or any of that. Feel free to correct me about stuff that actually takes away from the text or that is offensive, but like... no need to educate me on the Ways Of Farming or something, it's just a fic.  
> Anyway, thank you SO MUCH for reading and I would appreciate any comments beyond words! I'm touched by the response to the first chapter so I hope you guys like this one too!


	3. the one with the puppy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I've never had a dog, I don't know much about them, I just like puppies a lot. THIS CHAPTER WILL PROBABLY BE INACCURATE AND OVERLY OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE OF PUPPY ADOPTION. JUST DEAL WITH IT
> 
> Also- the first scene is inspired by one of picapicae's drawings. http://picabutts.tumblr.com/post/151160949284/11-ds   
> ^ specifically that one which I highly regret looking up the link for while my friend is in the room since it's on an NSFW art blog aaaaaahhhhh I'm sorry I consume every Pynch content that Tumblr feeds into my sad and lonely brain. but anyway that's a great drawing

Adam had managed to stay at school for three weeks straight, which he thought was pretty good. He was enjoying this year, staying busy- his internship, hanging out with his college friends (who he’d missed over the summer), and his classes, which were slowly getting more interesting as he was allowed to specialize more in his field instead of gen-ed.

But he was going home this weekend and it was making him restless.

For some reason, his boss had scheduled a meeting for Friday afternoon, even though no one wanted to talk about their plans for the future of the firm when the week was almost over. Adam was prepared with notes, of course, but he was still counting the minutes until he could leave. He had his weekend bag packed in the car. It was less than a two-hour drive, if he made it out of the city before rush hour.

He did not make it out of the city before rush hour.

“God fucking damn it,” he muttered under his breath, staring at the unmoving line of cars ahead of him. _Why_ had the meeting had to drag on so long? Why had Clark, his annoying idiot fellow intern, asked so many stupid fucking questions that Adam, and anyone who was paying attention, would already know the answer to?

Adam turned the record player on. One of Ronan’s playlists was still in there, playing his shitty EDM music. As usual, it was oddly relaxing, even though it sounded like scraping nails on a chalkboard for the most part.

By the time he got home, it was dark out, and late. There were still mosquitos hanging around- September hadn’t done much to get rid of them. He lugged his bag into the house, switched off the porch light that had been left on, and headed up the stairs.

First he peeked into Opal’s room, quietly. She was passed out on the bed, her stuffed goat named Nail-clipper (she’d gotten the idea of naming things after appliances but didn’t seem to go for really hard-core ones) lying next to her along with _The Tale of Despereaux_ , which her fifth-grade class was reading. Adam had helped her do her assignments on it over Skype a few times.

He walked in carefully and stuck the bookmark in the place the book had fallen open to, then put it gently on her bedside table. Then he draped the blanket over her and switched off the light before kissing her forehead and smoothing her hair. He always missed her, but he’d be able to talk to her tomorrow.

Adam walked out of her room and down the hall to his and Ronan’s room. He pushed open the door.

The light was off, but Ronan was clearly awake. He was lying on the bed in just his boxers with the window open, a cool night breeze making the curtains flutter.

“I was two seconds away from checking to see if a burglar broke in,” Ronan said.

“You knew I was coming home for the weekend,” Adam replied, standing in the door.

“Yeah, but you spent ten minutes fucking around on the creaky floorboards.”

“I was checking on Opal.”

“Should have been checking on me.”

Adam crossed his arms, smiling, and dropped his bag off on the floor.

Ronan was looking up at him with an open smile, and Adam could feel how much he’d missed him, just like when he got back for any weekend visit. It was easier this time, but he was still relieved to be home.

 _Home_.

He crossed the short expanse of floor and climbed onto the bed over Ronan. He was acutely aware that he was still fully dressed in the casual suit he’d worn for the meeting- nothing fancy, but his tie hung down over Ronan’s bare chest, and the air felt a little charged.

“Hey,” he said quietly, and ran his fingertips over Ronan’s lips. Ronan stared up at him intensely. Adam stared back down.

Then he leaned in closer and let his fingers disappear in Ronan’s mouth. Ronan closed his eyes and made a contented noise.

“Missed you,” Adam whispered in Ronan’s ear, Ronan still sucking on his fingers. Ronan opened his eyes and gazed lovingly at Adam, who removed his hand from Ronan’s mouth and replaced it with his mouth.

The weather had cooled down a little and he could feel the night air from the window, but he was so warm here, softly kissing Ronan.

Ronan’s hands were resting on his waist, pulling him closer, and then tugging at the hem of his pants. Adam laughed into Ronan’s mouth.

“What?” Ronan murmured.

“Nothing,” Adam said. “Just happy to be here.”

Ronan’s grin turned up further, and he said, “Fucking sappy-ass shit.”

“I love you,” Adam said.

“That’s even sappier.”

“You want me to pull out the pet names?”

“Oh God,” Ronan said, making a fake retching noise. “Don’t, please don’t.”

“Sweetheart. Baby.”

“That’s it, you ruined the moment,” Ronan said, while Adam laughed and rolled off onto his side.

“Christ,” Ronan said, rolling over and settling closer next to Adam. “I forgot how much I miss you when you go back to school.”

Adam looked into his eyes.

“Yeah, but you don’t have to miss me for as long anymore,” he said. “I’m gonna visit way more often now.”

“Mmm,” Ronan said, smiling.

They just looked at each other for a while, and Ronan played with Adam’s tie, loosening and unknotting it and carefully taking it off for him. Adam felt, again, the sharpness of being back in their room alone and together. He leaned in close and whispered, “Want to take off the rest of my clothes for me?”

“And here I thought you were so independent,” Ronan said.

Adam rolled his eyes. Ronan began unbuttoning Adam’s shirt. His fingers brushed Adam’s chest and they were warm and comfortable and electric.

“Lie back,” Ronan said. “I’m gonna do all the work.”

“Why’s that?” Adam asked, though he complied and laid comfortably back against the pillows lined along the headboard. Ronan undid his belt and began sliding Adam’s pants off.

“Cause I missed this,” he said. “And you’ve been working all day.”

“So have you.”

“Yeah, but you were stuck in traffic. Come on, just let me take care of you.”

Ronan was particularly fond of taking care of Adam. Adam was equally fond of taking care of Ronan, but he was less annoying about pursuing this task.

“If you insist,” Adam said, lying back and closing his eyes and sighing dramatically.

“Asshole,” Ronan muttered, before climbing on top of him and capturing him in an aggressive kiss.

 

In the morning, Ronan woke up tangled in Adam’s limbs, and he felt better than he had in ages. Not that he’d felt bad- in fact, the last few weeks had been great. Taking Opal to school, where she was doing quite well, and taking care of the new farm, finding out ways to mix in his own dream-inventions with his regular innovations and with traditional farming techniques. He’d even started making kind-of friends in the area.

Life was good.

But it was better when Adam was here.

Adam’s hair was soft where it was pressed against Ronan’s chest. There was a line of drool coming out of his mouth, which Ronan would have loudly proclaimed as disgusting if Adam was awake, but he didn’t really give a shit now. Adam looked angelic as always in the fine sunlight coming from the open window.

The door gently creaked open and Opal tiptoed in.

“I’m awake, brat,” Ronan said. She startled and looked at him like a deer in headlights.

“Adam’s back,” she whispered.

“Yeah,” he said. “And he’s sleeping.”

“Mm?” Adam murmured, eyes fluttering open. “’M not sleepin.”

Opal shrieked for joy and took a running jump, landing in a heap on the bed. Adam scrunched up his eyes and then put on a smile when she crawled up in between the two of them, forcibly separating their limbs.

“Adam’s back, Adam’s back, Adam’s back,” she said, grabbing Adam tightly and giving him a hug.

“Yeah, I am,” Adam said, his face warming into a real smile. “Good morning, Opal.”

Ronan looked at them with what he was sure was a horrifically sappy expression. He didn’t care. He loved them so much.

“Let me in, too,” he said, and threw himself on top of both of them. Opal shrieked again in protest, and Adam laughed.

“Kerah!” she shouted, when he leaned forward to press a kiss to Adam’s forehead.

“Yeah, you should give Adam a good morning kiss too,” Ronan said.

She made a supreme effort to turn around for the sole purpose of glaring at him, before swiftly kissing both of Adam’s cheeks and throwing her arms around his neck again.

“Te amo, Adam,” she whispered.

Adam’s face softened.

“I love you too, Opal,” he said.

Ronan let his face rest against the heap of soft pillows, watching two of the people he loved most in the world, and then he said, “Hey, you two stay here. I’m gonna go make breakfast.”

“Wait!” Opal said. She gave Ronan a look. “ _The surprise_ ,” she said in Latin.

Ah, shit. He’d nearly forgotten what they had planned for today. He’d just been clouded with the thought of spending the day with Adam.

Adam looked at Ronan curiously. “What surprise?”

“How the fuck do you still remember how to translate that from Latin?” Ronan said.

“Why are you changing the subject? There’s a surprise?”

“Yup!” Opal said, sitting up dramatically. “Ronan, tell him.”

Adam, still sprawled out lying down on the bed, looked up at Ronan, a little bit tired and soft-edged. Ronan really couldn’t resist doing anything for him.

“We’re getting a puppy,” Ronan said.

Adam’s mouth dropped open, and his face lit up. He sat up, his eyes suddenly awake.

“Really?” he said, sounding practically like a six-year-old child on Christmas morning.

“Yeah, really,” Ronan said, trying to suppress his own smile. “We picked a couple out at the shelter and we’ve done most of the annoying-ass forms and shit-”

Adam threw himself at Ronan and kissed him. Opal let out an irritated groan.

“Guyyys, gross,” she whined.

Adam pulled back. His eyes were still shining.

“I can’t believe it,” he said.

Adam had talked longingly about getting a puppy for years now, probably since he’d first become friends with Ronan and Gansey. They’d pass people walking dogs on the street and he would literally stop talking to say hello to the dog. One night over the summer, Adam had bemoaned the fact that he’d never had a dog as a kid, because his family couldn’t afford to feed another mouth, but how he’d always loved the neighborhood dogs.

So Ronan had waited until they’d moved into the new house, and then he and Opal had checked out the local shelter and gone through the annoying process to be allowed to adopt a dog. They had a few dogs in mind, but they wanted Adam to make the final decision.

“We’re going to go get the puppy today?” Adam asked.

“Yeah, if they don’t make us fill out a million more forms,” Ronan said.

“I can do the forms,” Adam said quickly. “When are we going?”

“Soon as I’m done with chores for the morning,” Ronan said. “Speaking of which, Opal, come on.”

Opal let out a whine. She was always reluctant to head out into the fields to help Ronan with farm chores on weekends, but she always ended up enjoying the work anyway.

Adam started getting out of bed, and Ronan said, “No, you rest. You should sleep in.”

“I’m not tired,” Adam said, getting up and heading to the dresser to grab some clothes. “I’m too excited.

“Too excited to oversleep? Damn,” Ronan said. “I didn’t know you wanted a puppy _this_ badly.”

Adam’s face lit up again and he squeezed his hands together.

“I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it,” he said. “I’m gonna call Blue and tell her.”

He got dressed incredibly quickly and grabbed Ronan’s cell phone off the side table and ran downstairs. Opal jumped off the bed and scurried out after him.

Once they were all downstairs, Ronan pulled the half-eaten loaf of cranberry-walnut bread he’d made out of the bread cabinet. He’d gotten the recipe from one of the neighbors and it had served as a pretty decent breakfast all week.

“This is really good,” Adam said, when he had some of it toasted with butter. “You should make some for me to bring back to school.”

“Nah,” Ronan said, sitting down. “Gotta have something to make you want to come back home.”

“Oh, yeah, if it weren’t for the bread I wouldn’t miss home at all.”

Opal laughed.

 

Adam knew damn well that he looked and was acting like an overexcited little kid, but he didn’t care. Opal didn’t seem to judge him for it and Ronan, if anything, seemed endeared by it.

And also, he was going to get a puppy and he was too unbearably happy at the thought.

“Would you quit bouncing in your seat,” Ronan said, from where he was driving the BMW to the animal shelter.

“I’m not _bouncing_ in my seat,” Adam said, but his shaky voice betrayed that he was, in fact, bouncing his leg in excitement.

Opal made a bird sound out the open car window.

They reached the shelter and it took a while before they were allowed to visit the three dogs Ronan and Opal had picked out. Adam had no idea how he was going to pick between them, and he hadn’t even met them yet.

He loved dogs. He liked all animals, but he wasn’t like Ronan, he wasn’t the type to form profound bonds with ravens and cows and dream-turtles. He’d always been a dog person. Probably his earliest happy memory was being four years old and finding out that one of his neighbors in the trailer park had a dog who’d had puppies. Once his dad was at work for the day, he slipped out the door- his mother didn’t care where he spent the day as long as he did his chores and didn’t anger his father- and ran to the neighbor’s house, where the puppies were outside in a box, being given away. The neighbor watching over them had let Adam pick up each puppy and give it a hug, and Adam had made the mistake of naming all of them, which had only led him to miss them even more once they’d gone.

He’d been friends with all the dogs in the trailer park. They were something special to him, because they loved him unconditionally. They were never cruel, not even the pit bull, which Adam’s dad had said was a vicious kind of animal, but in Adam’s experience it had been nice. So he’d always dreamed about getting a puppy, or any dog really, so he could have that unconditional love with him all the time.

He had it now anyway. But he still had that giddy glee over the thought of having a puppy in the house.

“Ronan?” the woman at the front desk called. Adam jumped up, and Ronan and Opal got up with him.

She led them to a door in the back, and told them to wait a moment. A few seconds later, she came back again with a small dog in her hands.

Adam knew he should have been paying attention to what the woman was telling them, but his mind had short-circuited with happiness. It was a little pitbull puppy, and it was squirming in the woman’s arms, and it had a little brown spot over one of its eyes.

“Ronan, look at it,” he half-whispered.

Ronan was suppressing a smile.

“Do you want to hold him?” the woman asked.

Adam nodded rapidly and held out his arms.

It was warm and soft and small, and it instantly curled up in Adam’s arms. Adam held it carefully, the way he held Opal back when she was smaller, and then the puppy made a small, whiny sound, like it was yawning.

“Oh my God,” Adam gasped gently. “He’s so cute. Ronan, are you seeing this? He’s so cute.”

“Yeah, I can see it,” Ronan said.

“Let me see the puppy,” Opal said, tugging at Adam’s leg.

Adam knelt down and held the puppy carefully towards Opal. Opal patted its head, soft.

“I like him,” Opal said. “He’s my favorite.”

“Do you want to see the others you picked out?” the woman asked.

“I…” Adam said, not sure how he was going to pick any puppy other than this puppy, who was clearly the best puppy in the entire world.

“OK,” he said finally, because it was only fair.

 

Ronan had not planned to come home from the shelter with three puppies, but he felt he had no choice. Adam had looked up at him, with actual puppy dog eyes, from where he was on the floor of the shelter holding all three of the puppies he and Opal had picked out as options, and said, “Can we get all of them? Do you think we could get all of them?”

And Adam rarely ever wanted to make such a dumbass choice, so it meant he really wanted to.

They had money- they still had Lynch family money- so yeah, they could afford three puppies, but it was still going to be a bit of a nightmare having _four_ energetic young things running around the house.

Still. They were really cute. And Adam was really cute.

They went to the pet store to pick up dog food and other supplies, and Ronan got the forms in order- normally Adam took care of boring adult bullshit, but he was in a state of heightened excitement and had been playing with the puppies the whole time.

“This is a disaster,” Adam said, in the evening, sitting on the couch surrounded by the puppies. Opal was sitting sprawled out on the floor watching cartoons.

“How is it a disaster?” Ronan asked, coming in from the kitchen, where he was making pot pie for dinner.

“They’re so cute,” Adam said. “I can’t do my homework and I have a lot of homework. But I can’t focus on my homework when they’re here!”

“Homework is stupid,” Opal said.

“No, homework is important,” Adam said. “It helps sharpen your mind.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Opal said, and gave an impressive eye-roll. Ronan knew she’d learned that from Adam.

“Did you name her yet?” Ronan said, jerking his head at the white terrier curled at Adam’s side. They’d each decided to name one dog- Opal had picked the terrier, Adam the pit bull, and Ronan had picked the golden retriever.

“Yeah,” Opal said. “I’m naming her Skeleton.”

“Skeleton?” Ronan said. “That’s a good name, actually.”

Opal nodded.

Ronan had already decided to name the golden retriever Blowtorch. He figured that would be a pretty badass set of names- Skeleton and Blowtorch.

“What about you, Adam?” Ronan asked. He set himself on the floor against the couch, next to where Opal was sitting.

Adam was holding the pitbull puppy in his lap, scratching it behind the ears.

“T-Rex,” he said. “That’s what I wanted to name a puppy when I was ten, when I wanted to get one. I was obsessed with dinosaurs, so…” He shrugged.

“And we could call him Rex for short!” Opal said. “And Skelley. And Torch.”

“Those are terrible names,” Ronan said.

“Yeah, terrible,” Adam said. Ronan looked back- he was smiling. It was the best sight in the world.

He went to check on the pot pie. It was ready, so he took it out and dished some out onto three plates. He set some dog food in the bowls they’d bought, as well.

“Come on, guys,” he called into the living room. “Dinner’s ready. Opal, get up.”

Opal whined and Adam slowly got up, carrying T-Rex in his arms. The other puppies carefully jumped off the couch and ran after him.

“Here,” he said softly, setting T-Rex in front of his bowl. The other two puppies headed to their bowls too. Adam watched them contentedly.

“Shut up, Ronan,” he muttered, when he noticed Ronan looking at him.

“Wasn’t judging you,” Ronan said. “They _are_ fucking cute.”

Adam quirked his head and said, “Yeah,” then joined Ronan and Opal at the table.

Dinner was warm and good, and Adam seemed to like it. He always liked Ronan’s cooking, even if he made fun of him for being so domestic. Ronan liked being domestic, anyway; he didn’t think it contradicted having tattoos or liking EDM music or whatever.

Opal was yawning pretty quickly, and Adam was yawning too. He’d fallen asleep late last night and gotten up early and had been running around after the puppies nearly the whole day.

“Come on, you two,” Ronan said, when he was done washing the dishes. Both of them were leaning back in their chairs, looking exhausted. “Time for bed.”

“But I have homework,” Adam said.

“You can do it tomorrow.”

“I don’t wanna go to bed,” Opal said.

“You’re going anyway. Come on.”

They both, reluctantly, got up and went upstairs with Ronan. The puppies ran after them and jumped into Opal’s bed when she got into it. She giggled and hugged Skeleton carefully.

Ronan tucked the blanket over her. Skeleton buried herself closer under the covers and Opal rubbed her head against her.

“She’s a good dog,” Opal said.

“Yeah,” Adam said, wearing a ridiculous smile.

Opal yawned again. “Good night. Turn off the light, Kerah.”

T-Rex ran out the door after them, rubbing his head along Adam’s leg.

“I think you’re his favorite,” Ronan commented.

“They’re all _my_ favorites,” Adam said, but he seemed to be particularly fond of the pit bull.

They both brushed their teeth and got ready for bed, then crawled in under the covers together. T-Rex struggled to climb up onto the bed before Adam picked him up and lifted him into the bed on top of him.

“Who’s the best dog in the world?” Adam murmured, rubbing Rex’s head.

“What about me?” Ronan asked, curling up next to him.

“Are you saying you’re a dog?”

“No, I’m saying I want your attention.”

“Too bad, your fault for getting me the cutest puppy in the whole world.” This last part was mostly directed at Rex, who made an amiable sound before settling his head on Adam’s chest.

“ _You’re_ the cutest puppy in the whole world,” Ronan mumbled, his head buried in Adam’s neck.

“Excuse me?”

“Whatever.”

Adam let out a tired laugh, then closed his eyes and settled against Ronan. A contented sigh escaped him before he was quickly falling asleep.

Ronan reached over him and switched off the lamp on the bedside table. Then he set his head back against the crook in Adam’s neck and breathed in. God. He missed that scent so much when Adam was away at school. Like a garden in spring, with the undertone of gasoline still. It was the only thing guaranteed to make him calm enough to sleep.

 

On Sunday morning, Adam woke up to Rex licking his face. It tickled, so he laughed.

“Morning,” Ronan said from beside him, wearing a warm, sleepy grin.

“Don’t you have chores to do or something?” Adam asked.

“Already took care of the animals earlier,” Ronan said. “It’s like 9 am already. The other stuff can wait.”

He leaned in and kissed Adam, a little too lingering. Adam suspected he was actually jealous of the attention Adam was giving to the puppies.

Rex climbed over and licked Ronan’s face, too. Ronan smiled.

“OK, OK,” Ronan said, as Rex turned over and laid, belly-up, in between the two of them.

About fifteen minutes later, Opal burst in the door, interrupting a second, longer good-morning kiss that Rex had crawled his way out of. She announced herself with a loud birdcall and jumped onto the bed.

“Jesus, Opal,” Ronan said, falling back on his pillow. “You have to do this every morning?”

“Just when Adam’s here,” she said, and dropped herself on top of Adam in a hug. Rex decided to climb back up to snuggle next to Adam again.

The other two puppies ran into the room and scrabbled at the edge of the bed. Before Adam could reach over to pick them up, Ronan picked each of them up, one at a time, and set them on the bed.

Adam, lately, had gotten used to waking up warm and happy with people he loved, but this was even nicer and happier.

“I really don’t know how I’m gonna go back to school,” he said, rolling over as best he could with a ten-year-old satyr and three puppies climbing over him.

“You always do,” Ronan said. “Don’t worry. We’ll keep in touch like we always do.”

“Good,” Adam said, before leaning in for one last good-morning kiss.


	4. the romantic evening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> at some point in this chapter Adam takes a sip of apple cider and it took me 2 hours to restrain myself from writing "Adam took a fucking sip, babes" so that's how writing this chapter went

Ronan was used to missing Adam. It was a skill like any other, he supposed, like how he’d gotten used to missing Gansey and Blue and Henry, like how he’d gotten used to eternally missing his parents.

It was easier to miss Adam, because he always came back, and there was some piece of Adam tied to him all the time. But there was also some piece of him tied with Adam all the time, and- it was easier when all the pieces of both of them were close together.

He was sticking the dessert he’d made in the fridge to cool when he heard the key turn in the front door, and he dashed out of the kitchen to open the door.

Adam, a bit of red on his cheeks from the sudden October cold, and a scarf wrapped around his neck, jumped back in surprise, his key leaving the lock.

“Ronan,” he said. “Believe it or not, I can open the door myself.”

He held up his key.

“Hey,” Ronan said, staring at Adam. It had been so long- Adam always insisted on staying just-another-week at school, even though he claimed he missed home. It had been, what, another three weeks since the last visit, and Adam couldn’t keep himself away from his busy campus schedule, and Ronan was busy too, with the farm… But now Adam was standing on the front step illuminated in the faint dusk light, hair a little windblown, and Ronan wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be saying something.

Adam smiled. “Hey. One sec. I got you something.”

He kissed Ronan quickly, threw his backpack into the living room, and then ran back out to the car, emerging from the passenger side with a small bouquet of roses.

Ronan bit his lip to keep from showing his delight. It didn’t really work.

“Kind of shitty flowers,” Adam said, presenting them. “They were from the grocery store, I went there to pick up some snacks and toilet paper and I saw them so-”

Ronan cut him off by kissing him and grabbing the flowers.

“Asshole,” he murmured, forehead leaning against Adam’s. “You trying to, like, out-romantic me or some shit?”

“When have you ever done anything romantic?” Adam said sarcastically.

“Shut up. Get in from the cold. You look dumb in that coat.”

He actually looked a little hot, like a young professor or something, but Ronan thought he should throw in an obvious lie of an insult so that he didn’t sound too sappy.

“Where’s Opal?” Adam asked, taking his coat off and hanging it by the door. Ronan closed the door.

“She’s out at her friend’s house,” Ronan said. “She’s gonna be there ‘til like 10, they wanted to hang out to celebrate the long weekend.”

The long weekend was why Adam was home- his early fall break had coincided with the long weekend Opal’s school district set up for parent-teacher conferences.

“Which friend is that?” Adam asked.

“Mallika,” Ronan replied. “Opal told you about her.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Adam said. “I’m just glad she’s making so many friends.”

“Yeah, can’t believe she’s such a popular little shit,” Ronan said. Adam rolled his eyes in response to that.

“So, what?” Adam said, stepping forward and wrapping his arms around Ronan’s waist. “We have the house to ourselves until 10?”

“Yep,” Ronan said, leaning closer.

“What do you have planned for that?” Adam asked, voice getting lower, and his hands ran over Ronan’s ass.

“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Ronan said. “For once.”

“Oh come on, you know I’m only with you for the sex,” Adam said, grinning.

“But what about my baking skills?” Ronan asked.

“That, too. We can have sex and then I’ll eat some pie and go back to school.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Adam laughed, and Ronan’s chest filled up with warmth. _Pieces back together._

“I actually did make dinner,” Ronan said. “Come on.”

He grabbed Adam’s hand and led him into the kitchen, which he’d filled up with little dream-lights that looked like tea candles. They’d lit actual tea candles one time, but that had led to one of Adam’s shirts catching on fire, so Ronan had just dreamt some safer lights.

Ronan had set the table with the nicer plates and fancy glasses, and he clicked on his phone attached to the speakers, which played some quiet music. Adam looked around.

“What, are you trying to out-romantic me, Lynch?” he said.

“Couldn’t possibly,” Ronan said, holding up the roses Adam had brought. He grabbed a pitcher from the cabinet and filled it with water, sticking the roses inside, and he put them on the table. “See. I was missing a centerpiece. Not romantic at all.”

“Lucky I brought the flowers, then, or it would have been a disaster.”

Ronan threw his arm around Adam, kissed his cheek, and then said, “Come on. I made a ton of shit, actually.”

“What’s the occasion?” Adam asked.

Ronan set him with an annoyed look. Adam knew damn well the answer to that. As if after two years, Adam didn’t know that there didn’t need to be a reason for Ronan to put together something nice for him.

“Really, what?” Adam said. “Shit, did I forget our anniversary or something-?”

“Adam, we got married like three months ago, no you didn’t,” Ronan said. “It’s just because I missed you. Relax.”

Adam’s face broke into a small smile, and he said, “All right,” and sat down.

Ronan started getting out some of the dishes he’d put in the fridge and left on the stovetop when Skeleton, the terrier, bounded in.

“Hey, Skelly,” Adam said, voice filled with warmth, and picked up the puppy into his lap.

“Careful,” Ronan said, ladling pasta onto two plates. “The three of them have been fucking peeing everywhere. I only just removed the newspaper from all over the floor.”

“Oh, she wouldn’t pee on my lap,” Adam said, in a sickeningly endeared voice. “Would you, Skelly?”

He ruffled the puppy’s fur, then let her back on the ground when she started squirming. “Where are the other two?” he asked.

“Taking a nap, last I checked,” Ronan said. “But they’re probably all gonna wake up now. I specifically told them we were having- you know-”

“A date?” Adam asked.

Ronan’s face scrunched up. “No. We’re married. We’re not on a date.”

“Married people can go on dates.”

“Fucking… dumb-fuck married people,” Ronan said. He pulled out the plate of appetizers from the fridge and the bread he’d made from out of the breadbasket, and set them on the table.

“Holy shit, that looks amazing,” Adam said. “What is that?”

“Uh, those are mini butternut squash quiches. Cause like, I had to do something with the shit-ton of squash we have. And also some like, baked brie and fig jam pastries. I dunno, some dumbass shit Dinah from the baking group made. Easy as fuck to make.”

Adam stifled a laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Ronan asked, glaring at him.

“Nothing,” Adam said, still smiling broadly. “Can I have some of these?”

“Yeah, why the fuck did you think I made them.” Ronan turned to the fridge. “Oh, and I made some apple cider too. It’s not actually that difficult to make.”

“You made apple cider?” Adam said. “I’ve never had it, I don’t think. Well, I had some that Liz bought last year for some party, but I’ve never had homemade apple cider.”

“Lucky you, then,” Ronan said, and pulled the jug of cider from the fridge. He poured some into each of their glasses.

Adam took a sip of cider and his eyes widened.

“Good?” Ronan asked, taking a seat across from him.

“Ronan, I know I make fun of your cooking, but you know I’m kidding, right?” Adam said, setting his glass down. “Please don’t stop cooking. This is amazing.”

Ronan grinned. “Really?”

“Yeah, dumbass, really. I didn’t know food like this even existed.”

“Jesus,” Ronan said. “Chill. It’s not that good.”

Adam fixed him with a look. “Well, compared to the food I ate growing up.”

Oh. Ronan bit back his old habit of making a shitty remark about the food Adam ate growing up, because he was acutely aware, as usual, of the difference in how they’d grown up.

“Sorry,” Adam muttered.

“What?” Ronan said, looking up. “What are you sorry for?”

“I ruined the mood, or whatever. By bringing up my shitty childhood.”

“Adam. First of all, you can’t ruin the mood, the whole point of the mood was you coming home for the weekend. Second of all, you definitely can’t ruin the mood because you brought up- you know- what your life was like. It’s- it’s not your fault-”

Ronan winced- he shouldn’t have said that-

“I _know_ it’s not my fault-”

“I know, I know, I know,” Ronan said. “I mean that it’s nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about bringing up.”

“I know,” Adam hissed.

“What’s wrong?” Ronan said. “You’re not normally like this about it-”

“Well, sorry.”

“I’m not mad! I just don’t want you to be upset.”

Adam sighed.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m just tired. It’s been a long week and I missed home. And everyone else at my goddamn internship acts like- they act like it’s so easy to balance everything, because their parents fucking pay for everything- It’s just-”

Ronan got up and crossed to the other side of the table and lifted Adam out of his chair, bringing him into his arms again.

“I’m fine,” Adam said into Ronan’s chest, arms crossed.

“Yeah, you’re fine, I know you’re fine,” Ronan said. “I just wanted to say I love you.”

“You could have said that from across the table.”

“I also wanted to hold you.”

“Sappy fucker,” Adam grumbled.

Ronan buried his hands in Adam’s hair, because he knew that always worked to calm Adam down, and he kissed his forehead.

“Do you wanna talk shit about the assholes at your internship?” Ronan said.

“They’re not all assholes,” Adam said. “Just this one guy Chris, mostly, who’s a Republican-”

“Ugh.”

“He’s awful, God. Do you know what he said the other day?” Adam was pulling away from Ronan now and resting his arm against his chair so he could gesticulate with the other. “We were brainstorming ideas for the river cleanup project, right, and he said that the entire reason there’s any pollution in the river is that homeless people throw stuff into it. How the fuck did he get into this internship? Our entire goddamn job is environmental engineering and this idiot doesn’t realize the effect of corporate corruption on the environment. And when I told him that, this asshole says that corporations are unfairly discriminated against.”

“Corporations are evil machines,” Ronan added, sitting back down and taking one of the appetizers he’d made.

“Also, he thinks feminism ended when women got the right to vote. You know he called our boss a ‘cuck’ the other day, whatever the fuck that means, for talking about gender equality in the workplace.”

Ronan snorted with laughter. “Jesus Christ.”

Adam kept going on for at least fifteen minutes about his annoying coworker, taking a break to eat some of the pasta Ronan made and rave about how good it was. Ronan mostly just listened- he liked it when Adam ranted about people he hated, and it was also clearly good for him to let off some steam.

“OK, what about you?” Adam asked, while he was finishing the last of his pasta. “What’s going on in your life?”

“Eh, it’s not that interesting,” Ronan said. “I already tell you most of it during our Skype calls.”

“Come on, there’s got to be something interesting,” Adam said.

“More interesting to just listen to you.”

“Ronan, don’t tell me you’re getting off on me complaining about people again, I swear to God-”

“I regret telling you that,” Ronan said. “And no. Besides, you’re hot no matter what you talk about. You can tell me about your boring-ass homework if you want.”

“Or you can tell me about your boring-ass farm projects.”

“Excuse me, there’s nothing boring about bovine health,” Ronan said. “You should like it. It’s science shit.”

“Bovine health? What, are the cows getting sick?”

“No, because I make sure they’re healthy. It’s pretty simple but you’d be surprised how many farmers don’t give a fuck.”

Another fifteen minutes later, Ronan had explained most of the projects he was working on to get the farm in order, and they were finishing up the dessert he’d made.

“God, I am so full,” Adam said. “I can’t eat any more. What time is it?”

“It’s only 7:30,” Ronan said, looking up at the kitchen clock.

“Still two and a half hours ‘til Opal gets home, then.”

“Yeah,” Ronan said. “I’m gonna put the dishes in the sink, we can wash them tomorrow.”

“OK, I’ll wait in the living room,” Adam said.

“You’re not even gonna offer to help?”

“That wouldn’t be very romantic, to make me help with the dishes.”

“Asshole.”

When Ronan was done with the dishes and walked into the living room, Adam was sprawled on the couch and halfway through taking his clothes off.

“Jesus Christ, Parrish,” Ronan said. “You can’t wait ten minutes?”

“It’s been an hour since I got home,” Adam said. “I was just hurrying up the process.”

“Did you just assume we were going to have sex the second dinner was over?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“You’re so goddamn desperate,” Ronan said, and got on the couch next to Adam. It was a pretty spacious couch, so they could both lie down on it comfortably.

“What, did you have something else planned?” Adam asked, close to Ronan’s ear.

“Eh, whatever.”

“Come on. If you had something planned, we can do it.”

Ronan shrugged. He still felt kind of ridiculous whenever he planned romantic dates and things. Adam seemed to be OK just doing anything, and Ronan was obviously fine doing anything with Adam, but he always felt that he should prepare something nice. And he always felt like he was overdoing it, even now that they were married.

As if Adam knew what he was thinking, he leaned over, wrapped his arms around Ronan and whispered, “I like your stupid planned-out romantic gestures.”

“Fuck off,” Ronan muttered in response. Then he abruptly got up and started setting things up.

He pulled a box of glowing dream orbs from under a shelf and floated them up into the air, until the room was full of soft light, then he shut the regular lights off. Then he turned on the old CD player he’d brought over from the Barns, which started crooning old love songs.

“Come on,” he said, reaching a hand out to Adam, who got up, still shirtless and with his jeans half-undone, and took both of Ronan’s hands.

“What is this, slow dancing?” he asked.

“Yeah, why not.”

Adam smiled. Any amount of embarrassing overdone romantic gestures was worth it for that smile.

Adam leaned his head against Ronan’s shoulder and wrapped an arm around his waist. “You’re ridiculous,” he said quietly.

“Whatever,” Ronan said.

He could feel Adam’s calming heartbeat against his own. It was healing, like water was pouring through him and washing away the dust of being apart.

Adam’s arms wrapped around Ronan’s neck and he reached up to kiss Ronan. It was slow and soft and gentle, and quiet, it made everything quiet.

The slow-dancing devolved fairly quickly into making out, and then Ronan picked Adam up by his thighs and deposited him onto the couch and then it was his turn to get undressed. Then they were both naked and it was always like this after being apart, hungrily touching, like drinking or eating again after too long but without that stab of pain that usually comes before the relief. Just warmth and safety and touch.

When it was over, they were staring into each other’s eyes, breathing heavily, and then Ronan took Adam’s face into his hands and kissed him again and again.

Then they just lay together under the glowing lights and stared up, touching softly, like they were looking at constellations.

Adam leaned his head against Ronan’s neck.

“Oh,” Ronan said. “I almost forgot.”

He reached over Adam and under the couch, Adam grumbling while Ronan’s limbs awkwardly stretched over him, and then he pulled out a little glowing blue flower.

“It’s not as nice as the roses you brought,” he said. “I was holding it one morning after dreaming about you. I think it’s supposed to be your eyes, or your heart, or something dumb like that.”

Adam looked at it softly, and held it to his chest.

“You make everything beautiful,” he said, and kissed Ronan’s neck.

“Just for you,” Ronan said.

“God,” Adam said. “I can’t believe you planned out a whole romantic evening for no goddamn reason. I mean, we’re old married people, you don’t need to do shit like this.”

“We’re twenty,” Ronan said. “And I’ll always do shit like this.”

“Just for me?”

“Just for you,” Ronan said, and kissed Adam’s ear.

They almost fell asleep, but luckily, Adam glanced at his discarded watch on the floor around nine and said, “We should get ready for Opal to come home.”

When Opal came home, the puppies decided to get up, and the house was chaotic again. It was midnight before they managed to get everyone into bed, and then Adam, exhausted as he was, fell asleep curled next to two of the dogs before Ronan even got into bed next to him.

Ronan sighed and got into bed, brushing Adam’s hair from his forehead, and waiting, peacefully for once, for sleep to arrive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you liked this! the next update will be in a while because I have Actual Schoolwork despite all claims by my denial to the contrary. also, the next chapter WILL involve the parent-teacher conference mentioned briefly in this one :)

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you think! i live for attention and validation so even a lil comment would make my entire day. you can hit me up on Tumblr at arielmagicesi or Twitter at @ArielKalati also


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